1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing device rotationally driving a disk-shaped recording medium to record and/or reproduce an information signal using a pickup part and performing information processing based on the recording and/or reproduction, and to a disk drive device suitably used in the information processing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, optical disks such as CDs (Compact Disks) and DVDs (Digital Versatile Disks), magneto-optical disks such as MDs (Mini Disks) or magnetic disks such as FDs (Floppy Disks) are widely known as disk-shaped recording media. Various information processing devices are provided to record and reproduce an information signal using the disk-shaped recording media. In particular, information processing devices and disk drive devices using optical disks as disk-shaped recording media are often used in order to increase a storage capacity and a processing speed, for example.
Typical examples of such information processing devices include laptop computers (laptops). The laptops are widely used as mobile information processing devices but are strongly demanded to be thinner. Accordingly, disk drive devices mounted in laptops or the like are also highly strongly demanded to be thinner. A thinned disk drive device mounted in a current laptop or the like has a standard thickness of about 12.7 mm, and a thinnest disk drive device having a thickness of 9.5 mm is also provided in the market.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-65989 discloses an example of such an information processing device of the related art. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-65989 discloses an electronic device including a first unit having a keyboard; and a second unit connected to the first unit through a connection part, the second unit openable and closable relative to the first unit, and a program executed in the electronic device. The electronic device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-65989 “includes a first unit; and a second unit connected to the first unit through a connection part openably and closably supporting the second unit. The electronic device further includes a media drive having a storage medium mounted thereon or removed therefrom according to an operation and driving the mounted storage medium to access the storage medium; and an operation inhibition part setting or releasing an operation inhibition mode inhibiting an operation of the media drive and/or driving of the storage medium by the media drive according to an attitude of the second unit relative to the first unit.”
In an electronic device having such a configuration, it is expected that “a storage medium is inhibited from being driven in an unstable attitude so that a storage medium or a media drive is prevented from being broken, and/or an operation drive is prevented from being accidentally operated so that a storage medium avoids being accidentally removed, dropped and broken”.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-234802 discloses an example of a disk drive device of the related art. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-234802 discloses a device for recording an information signal on and/or reproducing an information signal from a disk-shaped recording medium. The recording and/or reproduction device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-234802 “includes a pickup chassis, a cover member and a disk tray. The pickup chassis includes an optical pickup, a pickup moving mechanism and a disk rotary drive mechanism. The cover member has an opening to allow a pickup and a disk table to face a recording surface of a disk-shaped recording medium and is connected to the pickup chassis to form part of a storage recess in which the disk-shaped recording medium is stored. The disk tray has the approximately arc-shaped storage recess in which the disk-shaped recording medium is stored, and the storage recess has an opening to allow the cover member to face the recording surface of the disk-shaped recording medium and is connected to the pickup chassis to close the opening with the cover member. The pickup chassis, the cover member and the disk tray are formed by members having different coefficients of linear expansion, respectively. The disk tray is provided on an outer periphery of the storage recess and has a protrusion formed on a storage wall extending on the opening to maintain a clearance between the outer peripheral wall and the cover member closing the opening.”
In a recording and/or reproduction device having such a configuration, “a disk tray, a pickup chassis and a cover member are formed by members having different coefficients of linear expansion, respectively, and a protrusion is formed on a lower edge of a main body of a storage wall of the disk tray”. Therefore, it is expected that “even when each component is distorted by heat in an operation of recording of recording data on an optical disk or reproduction of recording data from an optical disk, the cover member is brought into contact with the protrusion, making it possible to prevent warping of the cover member toward the optical disk and slide contact between the cover member and the optical disk”.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-242768 discloses another example of a disk drive device of the related art. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-242768 discloses a whole device structure for providing a small and light optical storage device. The optical storage device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-242768 “includes a cartridge holder into which a cartridge storing an optical storage medium is inserted; an eject motor driven to eject the cartridge; and a drive base on which the cartridge holder is mounted, where the eject motor is placed on the drive base by making use of a space behind a part on which the cartridge holder is mounted.”
According to an optical storage device having such a configuration, it is expected that “a compact optical storage device may be provided which is thin, small and light and has significantly improved assembling workability”, for example.
A laptop is highly strongly demanded to be thinner, and a thickness of a disk drive device crucial for providing such a thinner laptop may be demanded to be less than 9.5 mm which may be an ultimate value. However, in a disk drive device, it may be necessary to ensure a clearance having an appropriate size in order to rotate a disk-shaped recording medium and record an information signal on and reproduce an information signal from the disk-shaped recording medium without contact with the disk-shaped recording medium. Further, it is difficult to commercially produce a disk drive device with a thickness of 9.5 mm or less because of a strength of a component based on a material used, a volume limit of an optical pickup, and an increased cost due to a reduced yield, for example. Therefore, it is difficult to provide a thinner laptop.